Saturday, January 8, 2011

AAMCO's got nothing but respect for its customers

I know this is saying a lot, but this may well be the most annoying commercial I've ever seen.

I thought "Five Dollar Foot Longs" was bad. I cringed at the Smirnoff's "I Can't Believe I was there" campaign. And those hideous brats with the clueless, poison-hogging parents in the Kraft Mac' n "Cheese" commercials? Ugh.

But yes- I'm convinced- these are even worse. The "customers" in this ad do what nobody with any self-respect (or brain cells) would ever do in public- they act like absolutely clueless morons in their attempts to explain the noises their cars are making, and they do it for apparently no other reason but to amuse the clean-cut, condescending AAMCO mechanic who looks like he just loves these little sessions with the lesser Not-Mechanics who are necessary evils in his life.

So AAMCO mechanics patiently wait for us not-AAMCO mechanics to stop making total asses of ourselves so that they can give us the answer they were going to give us even if we didn't spend the previous three minutes screeching like sick monkeys- "we'll check it." (Because here's a quick tip- if the mechanic tells you he knows what the problem is based on your sound effects, he's trying to sell you a very expensive service. The only HONEST answer from a mechanic is "I won't know what the problem is until I've checked it out.")

My favorite moment in this ad is the part where the Adorable Harebrained Woman With Dog points to the "check" light (conveniently shaped like an ENGINE) and asks "I don't know what this light means.) AAMCO Genius- "That's the Check Engine Light. We'll Check That."

Are we kidding, AAMCO? Do you really have that little regard for your customers? Or is it just women? You think there's anyone out there who doesn't already know that the "Check Engine" light means "it's been 3000 miles since your last oil change, and you don't know how to turn this light off, so if you don't want to keep looking at it- wondering if it means your engine is about to fall out- you'd better bring it in to Jiffy Lube?"

Actually, I can't believe I asked that last question. It's pretty clear from this ridiculously long, thoroughly obnoxious ad how much regard AAMCO has for the non-AAMCO mechanic population out there. Not much.

4 comments:

But, John, I'm just a silly girl and I have no idea what goes on inside my car!

*giggle*

I can turn my radio on and off and there's a mirror no matter which way I look! All those pretty lights confuse me!

I have no way to know that my truck's V-6 300 horsepower engine needs six quarts of oil when I change the oil, or that I'll need to put it up on the ramps to fit under it on the creeper because my chest is too big for me just to slide under it otherwise. Also, I need Imperial tools, not metric.

Somehow I have managed to go 14 years of driving used cars without ever having any one of those sounds. I have had simple "clicking" or "grinding" but never anything close to the noises these people make. And I dont care what the 2nd mechanic says but the noise that the guy makes is not "just his balance".